PINE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A federal appeals court has upheld a $1 million judgment against the Pine Plains school district for being "deliberately indifferent" to "physical and verbal racial harassment" suffered by a former student at the high school, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday in a 49-page ruling.

In affirming the decision, the court said Anthony Zeno, a former student at Stissing Mountain High School in Pine Plains, had faced repeated racial harassment over a period of 3{ years.

It began when Zeno, who is biracial, began attending the high school in eastern Dutchess County in 2005, the court noted.

Almost immediately, the harassment, which included racial slurs and threats, began. Zeno's family notified the school of the incidents, but the harassment only escalated over the years, the court said.

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The court pointed out that the school district knew about it, and while it did take some remedial action, it was not enough. The court said the district's "actions could not have plausibly changed the culture of bias" at the school.

In March 2010, a jury found the district liable under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and awarded Zeno $1.25 million. A judge reduced the jury award to $1 million in August 2010.

In its decision Monday, the appellate court concluded that a "jury reasonably could have found that the district ignored the many signals that greater, more directed action was needed" in light of the serious and life-threatening harassment that included racial epithets from classmates.